brembo helicoil
#1
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
brembo helicoil
So it was time to charge the discs on the brembo fronts , one side came off so easy , plus no issue with the caliper bolts , sanded the hub so the new disc was flat , mtec discs which were 85£ or so delivered , as i found one side so easy i knew the other side would get its revenge on me , so top caliper bolt slightly stiff so lots of wd40 etc used and it came out ok in the end , all thread was there clearly some marks on the thread in the caliper , i cleaned up the bolt as it has a few small bits of metal shards in it ,i used a very fine screwdriver and a hammer , the caliper thread was generally fine , the lower caliper bolt …. oh dear , lots of backwards and forwards tightening loosening off , plus i use sas as a lubricant , it came out in the end but more aluminium deposits on the bolt which i cleaned off , once the bolt was out but half the thread in the caliper was missing , it did tighten up , the torque is around 80 ft pounds , i think the damage was done by a previous owner , so yes it screwed in and tightened up but for safety too much thread missing , so helicoil time , i have not had a lot of luck taping a new thread in in the past but i wanted to carefully sort this myself , it was the weigh up of its in its tight but probably not safe enough due to lack of thread , i left the caliper connected to the brake pipe , i put a box under the caliper and took the caliper off the car and rested it in the box , i bought a helicoil kit some time ago as this is the second time in quite a few years of scooby ownership that this has happened but last time a garage did it , the kit comes with the correct drill size plus tap helicoil and tools , holding the caliper and using minimal pressure and lining it up the best i could, i drilled a new hole from the pad side of the caliper , it’s very important to take your time doing this so it is dead on , the aluminium is quite soft so it’s not too bad to do but as above get it dead in when you drill it and use a bit of oil when drilling it , the tap i did from the other side again be very careful it is dead on , screw the tap in , back it off then spray lubricant to get rid of the swarf , so lots of backward and forwards till the tap is fully out the other side , the helicoil comes with a tool to insert it , don’t use too much pressure let the helicoil find the thread as you screw it in , once the helicoil is no longer proud on the caliper then it’s in , the helicoil has a little tab that the insert tool holds onto the tab this needs snapping off , test the caliper bolts and caliper with out the disc being on the hub , sometimes the hub bolts holes need a slight filing so things are going on easy and straight so you don’t cross thread , when you put it all back together then a wheel nut on the bottom of the disc keeps it all lined up , not too bad a job to do just make sure it’s all lined up when you drill and tap , the kits can be bought on ebay , the front size is M12 x1.5 the rear is M10 x 1.5 👍
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#4
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
i’ve only had two threads fail on brembos in a lot of miles , both being front calipers , probably in the region of 400k miles between all the scoobies , the point of the post is it’s do able at home , i left the caliper on as the brake line banjo bolts can cause issues too , and i was uming and aring can i do it the answer was yes it’s pretty straight forward and the helicoil kits are a bit over 12 for all tools and quite a few helicoils 👍 it’s all about getting it straight not only drilling but also tapping 👍😁
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Jay Cartay
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16 May 2018 09:10 AM